Some 500-series cases will allow you to cascade the signal without cables, but it’s usually only from slot to slot, so if you have a double slot device (I’m guessing the bus comp is) then you have to use cables in the back of your case. Monoprice has some decent short cables for reasonable prices and you can get just about any connector combo you need.
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do I get anything extra already having ozone 9?
Quite the chain he’s got there…
Interesting what he says about using pretty heavy de-essing to achieve those super bright mids.
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I Don’t know. It’s my First desktop mastering Plugin.
- Linear EQ to cut subs [if needed]
- Comp light tape emulation [if needed]
- Reverb at about 3-5%, 2ms predelay [if needed or wanted]
please: if any of this is way wrong or a bad idea, let me know. still trying to sort why my stuff is so meh [aside from the bad composition]
100% wet
Abbey Road mastering plugin from waves, and then an SSL bus comp right after that with barely any compression. just enough to catch those little 1-2 db peaks.
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That Abby Road plugin is quite good!
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The listed audio chain is on the mix bus, rather than master bus, of my Techno studio setup. Below are the primary items, but it is still a work in progress:
- ART EQ-355 (Graphical EQ) - Mostly used to attenuate resonance. Not used much as this is primarily done in the mastering stage.
- Drawmer 1974 (Parametric EQ) - Main sound shaping EQ.
- ART TransY (FET Compressor/Limiter) - Main compressor to glue tracks. Normally, I would not use a FET compressor in this situation, but it works well. Reminds me of the PSP FET compressor VST.
- dbx 215s (Graphical EQ) - Sidechain EQ for main compressor signal detection.
- BBE Sonic Maximizer 882i (Enhancer) - Sometimes used to add a little brightness back to the mix after compression.
- ART Pro VLA II (Optical Compressor/Limiter) - Soft limiter to further glue tracks.
Overall, it is nothing special by any means, but it gets the job done for my modest requirements. Afterwards the track is sent to a mastering engineering or mastered in Ozone Advanced by myself.
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Just thought I’d revive this thread as I did a short video about the way I use my Karakter 500 at mastering:
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Reviving this old topic because I’ve recently re-discovered a tool in Ableton that I’m absolutely loving and its rather unexpected.
I used to use a complex chain of plugins and/or the AH on my master bus but I’ve been experimenting with using the Color Limiter in this Ableton Max for Live pack that came out a few years ago. I’ve gotta say, I think this is a fantastic plugin. Super simple to use, saturation on it sounds really good, the tone control is very usable, and it just takes a lot of abuse no matter what you throw at it.
Anyone else using it? Anyone else even know about it? (haha) I’m glad I found it again, its becoming my go-to on the master bus.
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I haven’t used it in a while but the Color Limiter really is a gorgeous tool. It’s up there with the Glue Compressor and Saturator in terms of utility and character but it isn’t spoken about so much, possibly because it resides in the Max For Live folders.
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Alesis bitrman…corny 1 knob limiter, [awful] distortion but fine when used subtle, and some very fun stereo mangling options perfect for adding some impulsivity to the mix
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Speaking of coloured processors, I love this multi-band, multi-distortion EQ plugin called Spectre:
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Interesting, this looks a bit like a scaled down version of Fabfilter’s Saturn, which I also love (though I don’t find myself using it much these days).
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Pretty similar to a lot of what I use. I also love HG2, such a good processor. What is that last thing you have at the end that is currently bypassed?
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soundid reference (headphones correction thingy)
hg2 is very good, I wish it had auto gain staging because the pentode/triode are so sensitive and the output is in percentage instead of db, drives me nuts to work with it, but I still like it so I dial in something and compare 2-3 variations and also against saturn as well
Yeah, I use it for subtly mainly. Boosting the bass and top end with some saturation works wonders
And yeah, it (and process.audio Sugar) makes me not need to wax 1k on an Analog Heat
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My present mix bus setup consist of the following:
- Heritage Audio HA-73X2 Elite Preamplifier
- SSL Fusion Multiprocessor
- Drawmer 1974 Equalizer (possibly will switch to an Elysia Xfilter soon)
- SSL The Bus+ Compressor
A 10-space 500 series chassis is arriving soon to incorporate a few specialized modules. This setup is used for polishing final mixes prior to mastering.
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